HSBC has staged a partial climbdown over a controversial bonus plan for its chairman in order to quell a damaging revolt from its biggest shareholders.

Bowing to investor pressure, the bank revoked an earlier offer to hand its chairman Douglas Flint a £2.25m award in shares.

Under HSBC's latest plan, Flint's bonus would be limited to a one-off payment of £1.06m. HSBC said Flint's reward would be capped at 44% of his fixed pay, which was about £2.43m last year. In another attempt to appease investors, the bank said the reward under the HSBC share scheme would be for one year only.

Flint, who has been HSBC chairman since 2010, would have seen his pay almost doubled if HSBC's first plan had gone ahead. The bank argued that he deserved a £2.25m bonus, because the latest round of banking regulation reform had added significantly to his workload. But large investors recoiled from the plan, believing that Flint was receiving a big increase in pay while his job description remained unchanged.

The standoff could have led to an investor rebellion at HSBC's annual general meeting on 23 May, prompting the bank to offer an olive branch to big City shareholders.

HSBC said it wanted "to clarify" arrangements about Flint's pay following discussions with shareholders. "It is not intended that such awards … will become a feature of group chairman's remuneration arrangements over the long term."